A positive influence

One subject that I came across on the Centennial Institute homepage relates to Hollywood and the influence it holds over much of our society and culture. On September 9th, Dr. James Leininger will be speaking on this topic. I believe it can be a tough and slippery slope for many Christians to navigate. We want to be in tune with societal norms, but we don’t want to conform. We want to reach others through avenues that they are comfortable with, but we don’t want to be viewed as “mainstream” and essentially become “one of the guys”. By holding steadfast to our values and our faith, I think we can impact this world through such avenues like Hollywood, or sports, or music, etc. We need to be strong in our convictions and understand we will encounter challenges along the way. But with the Lord as our Rock, we can become agents of change for His Kingdom, and that is exciting to think about!

Mark Plaisier

http://www.ccu.edu/talkingbacktohollywood/

2 Comments

While exploring the Centennial Institute website, I came across the Centennial Review archives. They are packed with fascinating articles regarding current events and issues from a Biblical worldview, including a piece titled, Do Americans Worship the State? by Benjamin Wiker. Wiker advocates disestablishing liberal secularism on the grounds that it is governmental imposition of a religion upon the people. (Wiker, 2013). Is this approach good tactics or a straw man argument with insufficient foundation to go the distance? I believe Wiker makes a strong argument that liberal secularism is a political religion marked by worship of the state.

However, despite the undeniable parallels between established religions and liberal secularism, one must have a Biblical worldview in order to connect the dots. Blinded by secular humanism, postmodern man does not understand the meaning of worship, or even the existence of apodictic truth. His perspective is framed entirely within a naturalistic worldview (Sire, 2009). Thus, to him, religion involves worshiping the unknown, a practice only worthy of Neanderthals who didn’t know better. Wiker’s arguments do hold water, but we must remember our audience, and not become weary in well doing as we work to educate our fellow Americans regarding the religion of secular liberalism.

“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men.” (Von Mises, 1944/2011, p. 55).

It is crucial in our approach to the world that we understand that we, as Christians, cannot expect those that are not yet saved to follow our moral compass. That is not to say we should condone what we define as sin, as you mentioned standing strong in our convictions. In approaching the world we must look at it from the perspective that, dogs bark, cats meow, and sinners sin. We cannot expect them to do otherwise.

Granted, we are all sinners, as a saved people, however, we are acutely aware of our sin where others are not. That being said we do not need to reach people through avenues they are comfortable with. Jesus didn’t. Jesus loved people in spite of their sin. He ate with the tax collectors and forgave the adulteress. His avenue of approach was not necessarily through the comfort of the person. For example when he made the whip to drive the merchants out of the temple. His dominating features were his love for God and because of that his love for people regardless of their actions.